Amulet of Pataikos

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This pale faience amulet depicts the god Pataikos. Pataikos was a popular protective deity, amulets of whom were believed to ward off threats to the wearer. He is usually depicted as a nude dwarf with a bald head, often wielding a pair of knives and with a scarab on his head, as here.

Provenance

From Meroe (Beg. W), tomb 609. 1923: excavated by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition; assigned to the MFA in the division of finds by the government of Sudan.